


Part 15: Cynthia

by oiuytrewq36



Series: Straight to Number One [3]
Category: Queer as Folk (US)
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-08-24
Updated: 2020-08-24
Packaged: 2021-03-06 20:34:23
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 867
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26074990
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/oiuytrewq36/pseuds/oiuytrewq36
Summary: Even before Brian gets to the café, I have a pretty good idea of what he’s going to ask me - no one flies their assistant first-class across state lines just to meet a new team for an office that doesn’t even exist yet - so I order myself a pain au chocolat and a New-York-expensive cappuccino and mentally finalize my list of demands while I wait.
Relationships: Brian Kinney/Justin Taylor (Queer as Folk)
Series: Straight to Number One [3]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1891456
Comments: 2
Kudos: 37





	Part 15: Cynthia

Even before Brian gets to the café, I have a pretty good idea of what he’s going to ask me - no one flies their assistant first-class across state lines just to meet a new team for an office that doesn’t even exist yet - so I order myself a pain au chocolat and a New-York-expensive cappuccino and mentally finalize my list of demands while I wait.

When he does ask me, after showing up just barely on time and interrogating me for updates on the Pittsburgh office, it’s with the level of flattery that he generally reserves for clients he really wants to win. In other words, I’m feeling pretty good about the list.

“Everything was so much easier with you around all the time,” he says, cutting his sous vide spinach omelette into tiny squares. “I have no idea how I’m going to set up the office, let alone run it, and none of the candidates I’ve interviewed come close to you.”

I sip my coffee.

He pushes the plate to the side and links his hands on the table. “The New York office needs the best administrator I can get, and that’s you.” Not really a question, but we both know what it means.

I pretend to think about it, mostly because it’s fun to see him squirm. Then I put the coffee cup back in its saucer.

“I want a twenty-five percent raise and my moving expenses and the first three months of rent covered. And I get my own office.”

He laughs. “Fifteen percent, your own office, moving expenses covered and the first month of rent only.”

“Make it twenty percent and two months and you’ve got a deal.”

His turn to pretend to think. He pokes at the omelette a few times, then holds out his hand. I shake it, and we smile at each other.

“Welcome aboard,” he says, which is ridiculous - I worked at Kinnetik when it was still a stack of posterboard on his kitchen counter - but I start feeling all tingly and excited anyway. New York City, here I come.

***

The apartment is ridiculously nice, not that I’m surprised. There’s a big blue painting on the living room wall that I’m assuming is Justin’s and the expected minimalist furniture (charcoal instead of white, this time), as well as huge plate-glass windows overlooking a busy street.  
Justin, paint in his hair and adorable as ever, is sitting on a long couch with two people I don’t know, a floppy-haired guy with bright abstract sleeve tattoos swirling up both arms and a woman wearing glasses and an all-black pantsuit who has about a hundred cobalt-blue rings scattered across her nose, ears, eyebrows, and lips. I’m tempted to ask Brian if he’s decided to start a punk band.

“Cynthia, this is Frances,” he says, gesturing to the woman. “She’s our head analyst. And this is Sam, the new art director. Sam and Frances, meet Cynthia, the New York office’s new executive administrator.”

Justin jumps up and hugs me. “I told him you’d say yes!”

“Let me guess, he didn’t believe you.”

“If I had, it would have saved me a lot of money,” Brian says, in the voice he uses when he’s only pretending to be mean.

Frances looks at me. “Tell me you asked for rent coverage.”

I grin back. “Oh, I like her,” I say to Brian.

He groans. “I have a feeling I’m going to regret making this introduction in a week or so.”

***

A few weeks later, I’m over at Brian and Justin’s for a brunch planning meeting when I remember I have something to tell them.

“By the way,” I say, “you’ll never guess who called.”

“Brad Pitt,” Brian says. “Tina Turner. Mark Zuckerberg. Jimmy Carter. The alien from _Alien_.”

“Jon Stewart. Matt Damon. The ghost of Judy Garland!” Justin says.

I know from experience that if I don’t stop them they’ll just keep listing people. “None of those, unfortunately. It was Jeffrey Pendergrass.”

They both stare at me.

“What, the guy who raised twenty-five thousand dollars for the Liberty Ride and then claimed all of it as expenses?” Justin asks.

“I thought that asshole moved to California two years ago,” Brian says.

I shrug. “He’s setting up his new headquarters to New York, apparently. And he had the gall to call and ask if Kinnetik would like to donate to - get this - a ‘benefit fund’.”

“I guess I didn’t do as good of a job of scaring him off as I thought,” Brian says. “Especially if he’s asking us for money to, what, help him throw parties that are supposed to raise money for good causes but actually fund his five-star hotel stays?”

“We should do something,” Justin says. 

Brian looks at him with this funny mixture of fondness and exasperation. “Other than badmouthing him to clients, there’s not much we _can_ do. His practices are unethical, but they’re not actually illegal.”

Justin looks back at me. “What did you tell him?”

“I told him to go to hell, although I’m not sure that’ll stop him from calling again.”

Brian nods, then pushes a stack of binders over to me. “So, ready to go office hunting?”


End file.
